The Real Thing was an anomaly when they emerged in their native England during the ’70s as a group singing soulful pop music. The Beatles made Liverpool, England famous one decade earlier with their pop reign aptly named Beatlemania. But The Real Thing’s breakthrough in 1976 with their single “You Are My Everything” made the British media dub them “The Black Beatles” since they too came from Liverpool. Their song “Children Of The Ghetto” would later be covered by Phillip Bailey and Mary J. Blige. On April 4th season 14 of AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange will air their story with the documentary Everything: The Real Thing Story. Members of the group and British musicians Billy Ocean, Kim Wilde and David Essex discuss The Real Thing’s legacy.
AfroPop will broadcast and stream on WORLD channel and stream on worldchannel.org. The series will also stream on WORLD’s YouTube Channel and on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO.
